Was Jesus A Carpenter?

 

Was Jesus A Carpenter?

Brett Todd

My first career was working on a sawmill up in Minnesota with Alof Green, a quiet old Swede who only lost a few fingers along the way.  I also framed and built houses for a few years after that.  To this day, I humorously claim that I’m a little like Jesus because I’m a carpenter.

But was Jesus really a carpenter?  In Mark 6:2-3 we read these words: 

On the sabbath, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

You may note that Matthew 13:55, has a variation of Mark’s reading above that says something a little different, it reads “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” So, is Jesus the son of a carpenter or a carpenter himself?  As we have noted in the past, Matthew borrowed from Mark to write his Gospel and often added additional caveats to what Mark wrote.  In this situation, more than likely Matthew viewed such a statement, “Is not this the carpenter” as an insult and edited Mark's words to read, “son of a carpenter” to make Jesus look classier.  Whatever the reason, Matthew wanted to make clear to his readers that Jesus’ father was the carpenter and not Jesus.

There is an interpretation to this reading that is not often discussed by scholars that I think is worth mentioning.  It is believed because of the linguistic difficulty of this verse that both Matthew and Mark missed the Aramaic (the language spoken by Jesus and his kinsmen) metaphorical expression of the members of this synagogue.  The Aramaic expression “carpenter” (Naggar) means one who is a scholar.  The meaning behind Mark 6:2-3 would be that Jesus was not a carpenter but a scholar because only scholars can know these things (See Gez Vermes).

For some, this interpretation may seem difficult.  How can the word carpenter mean scholar, they are two different words, aren’t they?  Even in English we use words metaphorically that mean something completely different from their original meaning.  For example, after eating at a great barbecue chicken restaurant one might ask, “How was the chicken?” and metaphorically the answer would be, “Wow!  It was really bad, really bad!”  Meaning that it was really good.  The same is true for the word carpenter in Aramaic, during this time period, the word carpenter could have meant that one was really smart, or a scholar (see the Talmud).

Was Jesus a scholar?  Historically, it would appear that Jesus was very intelligent and understood the Hebrew Scriptures as well as other Jewish traditions, at least this is what the Gospel writers would have us believe, but was he a carpenter?  Maybe, maybe not.

In our next study, we will take a closer look at the historical and biblical character, Pontius Pilate.